


Collide

by VoxInculta



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Trans Lio Fotia, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22502413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VoxInculta/pseuds/VoxInculta
Summary: Teacher/Teacher AU Galo/Lio!This fic is... admittedly a little depressing in places. (Why do I do this to my favorite characters? >:/)
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

Galo hated having a whole hour for lunch to himself— He never knew what to do with himself after he was done eating. The school didn’t allow anyone to leave for lunch (even the staff), so it wasn’t like he could go out. Sometimes he’d go play a game of solo basketball, but it just didn’t satisfy him like a game with his students. 

It wouldn’t have been so bad if there was at least one other person who took lunch at the same time he did, and used the same room. Sure, Galo could join the other teachers in the main hall’s lunch room, but then he ran the risk of running into Ms. Aizawa, who couldn’t keep her hands off of him. He didn’t really mind the flirting, but he just didn’t know how to deal with the attention. (He wasn’t particularly interested in her either. Nice lady; Just not his type.)

Click. Whirr. The vending machine hummed to life. He’d begun to hate that noise. Among the still, silent room, that hum was near deafening.

Galo breathed a sigh, moving the ramen in his bowl around idly, the fork clinking against the ceramic. Among the sound of the vending machine, he almost doesn’t hear as the door opens, and only realizes it as it shuts noisily behind him, making him jump.

“Sorry, I… didn’t think there would be anyone else in here.”

Galo turned to face the voice, matching it to another staff member from the school— Mr. Fotia, a writing teacher.

“Uh, it’s no problem.” Galo stared for a long moment before clearing his throat, averting his gaze. 

Wow, he was… really cute. Mr. Fotia always had a good sense of style, but Galo had never really spoken to him, let alone been in a place to comment on his appearance. He looked rather young, probably just out of college himself, and wore his mint-colored hair in a cute little bun, with straight cut bangs that hung longer at the sides. He was thin and wore an ivory ruffled shirt that flared at the sleeves, paired with a pair of dark red pants.

“Is it… okay if I join you? I was looking for a quieter place to read while I take my lunch.” 

Galo’s eyes lit up a little. “Yeah, feel free!” Even if Mr. Fotia was just going to read his book in here, it was still nice to have another person around.

Mr. Fotia smiled, walking over to one of the chairs and setting his lunch parcel on the table, followed by a small stack of books. “I’m Lio Fotia. I teach writing. You’re the gym teacher, Mr. Thymos?”

“Yeah, Galo Thymos.” He said with a nod, his hair bouncing. “Just call me Galo.”

Mr. Fotia nodded, “And call me Lio.” He began to unwrap his lunch, setting aside the utensils as he began to open the box. “I promise I won’t bother you while you eat.”

“Oh, no problem.” Galo said with a smile. He watched Lio take a bite of sashimi, remembering his own food, which was probably a little cold by now. Regardless, he began to slurp up the noodles as quietly as possible.

He tried not to watch Lio too closely, but seeing as how he was literally the only interesting thing in the room, it was difficult not to. He watched him open up a small book, eyes scanning the pages as he lifted another bite to his mouth with his chopsticks. 

“What ya reading?”

Lio swallowed his bite before speaking. “A romance novel.”

“Oh. What’s it about?”

“It’s about these two princes from separate kingdoms fall in love and run away together, defying their families wishes to find their own happiness.”

“That sounds nice.” Galo said with a little smile, not really knowing what to say. He’d never been interested in literature, though he’d never delved into anything like that.

“Yeah, the story is really good, and it’s very heartwarming.” Lio smiled back, bringing a hand up to brush some hair behind his ear. “When I’m done with it, I’ll let you borrow it if you’d like.”

Galo’s smile widened, “Sure!”

Lio resumed eating with a grin, leaving the room quiet again. For a while they both sat in silence, both finishing up their meals and handling the dishes. Eventually the time began to dwindle down, the dismissal bell ringing loud outside the door. They both gathered their belongings.

“Guess I’ll see you tomorrow, Galo.” Lio said with a bow of his head. “Take care.”

“You too.” Galo nodded, “See you!”


	2. Chapter 2

For the first few days, Lio didn’t speak up much while they ate lunch. Galo didn’t want to pressure him into having a conversation, as he knew just how annoying that could be, especially after dealing with students all day. Even Galo— the most raucous and energetic of them all— liked his moments of calmness. 

Sometimes he found himself staring at Lio, watching his eyes move as he scanned the pages of his book. Occasionally Lio would look up and catch him staring, but by his little smile he didn’t seem to mind the attention.

On their fourth day eating together, Lio presented Galo with a little white box, tied with a blue bow.

“F-For me?”

Lio nodded, sliding the box closer to Galo. “Think of it as a peace offering. For letting me use your lunch room.”

Galo tugged at the bow carefully, easing the ribbon off to open it up. Inside was a little cake of some sort, the surface coated in smooth pink frosting, with a sliced strawberry posted on top. 

“I didn’t know if you liked matcha, so I got strawberry.”

Galo was stunned, his mouth slightly agape. “This is great— Thank you, Lio!”

Lio giggled sheepishly, “Enjoy.”

As much as he wanted to save it for after his lunch, it looked too good to pass up. The cake was small enough to fit into the palm of his hand, but it had an incredibly rich flavor. Galo savored every bite until it was gone.

“That was delicious!” Galo remarked, “Where did you get it?”

“A little bakery down the street. They have all sorts of treats-- It was hard to choose which one to get.” Lio chuckled, “I think I made a good decision.”

“Mm-hmm!” Galo hummed happily, sticking the spoon back in his mouth— just in case there was anything left on it. 

“Oh, and I finished that book. Did you still want to read it?”

Galo glanced back up, the spoon still hanging out of his mouth. “Yeah, sure!”

Lio reached into his bag, presenting the book to Galo. “No rush, just give it back whenever you’re done. Or keep it, I really don’t mind either way.” He said with a shrug. “I wrote my phone number down so that you can text me and tell me what you think about it.” A sly smile lingered on his face.

Galo felt his cheeks burn a little. “I will, thanks!” He couldn’t help but to wonder what was behind that smirk. Was Lio flirting, or was this just his way of being nice? Cake and a romance novel… This was new territory for him. Not that he’d complain if Lio _was_ actually flirting… 

A silence filled the room as they both ate their lunches. Galo had set the book aside, but kept glancing over at the cover, wondering what sorts of things he’d find in those pages. And then his mind drifted off to think of that cake again, and how good it tasted… 

“Hey, Galo.”

Lio’s voice made him raise his head. “Hm?”

“You really don’t mind if I eat in here?”

“Huh? No, not at all. To be honest it gets… really boring eating by myself.”

Lio raised a brow, “Why not join everyone in the main hall?”

“Uh, well ya see…” Galo scratched his head, looking away. “Ms. Aizawa _really_ likes me. A-And I mean she’s a nice lady and all, but I just… wanna eat my lunch, y‘know?”

Lio chuckled a little, “Well, you _are_ pretty attractive. Can’t blame her for trying.”

A shade of red spread across Galo’s cheeks. “I-I mean…”

“Lots of women talk about you, Galo.” Lio took a moment to unscrew the cap on his thermos, taking a sip of the tea inside. “Do you have a girlfriend already?”

Galo shook his head. “Nope.”

Lio pursed his lips, “Oh. Why’s that?”

“Just not too interested in anyone at the moment.” Galo shrugged. “What about you?”

The question seemed to catch Lio off guard. “Oh, uh… I’m not seeing anyone either.”

Galo tapped the hard cover of the book with his knuckle, “Judging from your reading material, you’re into guys?”

Lio looked away, his face red. “Uh, y-yeah…”

Galo felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment, “S-Sorry if that was a weird question. I just kind of talk without thinking sometimes.” Galo said, rubbing his neck. “I didn’t mean anything by it…”

“Oh, no, it’s fine.” Lio said, laughing a little. “And you?”

Galo nodded, “I… guess I like both? It’s not really something I think about. I just like people.”

Lio nodded too, “I see.” An odd silence filled the room again, lingering for a while before Lio spoke again. “Do you… find _me_ attractive?”

“Yeah!” Galo blurted out, a bit embarrassed at how enthusiastic he sounded. “I-I mean, yeah, of course! You’re very pretty, er, handsome…”

Lio giggled a little, “Really? You don’t think I’m too feminine for a guy?”

“I mean, that doesn’t matter. If you look good, you look good, yeah?” Galo said with a grin.

“Yeah, not to _some_ people.” Lio said with a sigh, “You’d think that adults especially could just let other people dress how they want…” He trailed off, rolling his eyes.

“Hm?” 

“Nevermind, I… don’t want to bother you with my troubles.” 

Lio obviously seemed frustrated about something. Galo didn’t want to pry, but… he also didn’t want to seem like he didn’t care.

“I don’t mind.” 

Lio’s lavender eyes moved back to focus on Galo again, his expression softening. “Just… some of the teachers here have been rude to me about my looks.”

Galo raised a brow, “What? _Really_ ?” Galo never saw the point in trying to control what other people do, so long as they weren’t causing harm. Lio was always nicely dressed and well-kept, and he always smelled clean-- which was a _welcome_ reprieve among the sweaty teenagers in Galo’s class. He could find nothing particularly wrong about the way Lio looked. “What’s their problem? You always look nice.”

“Some people are just assholes.” Lio said with a huff, “I’m glad to have a new place to eat where I don’t have to listen to people talk badly about me when I’m sitting ten feet away from them.”

It surprised Galo to hear such a thing about his co-workers. At first he didn’t want to believe that the other teachers would be so rude about one of their own, but Lio didn’t seem like the type to make up something like that. Galo didn’t really know any of them very well anyway, and he supposed that even the ones that seemed incredibly nice could always have a bad side that he’d never seen. He wondered what sorts of things they said about him when he wasn’t there to listen…

“Hey uh, so to change the subject…” Lio flashed a smile again, “Are you free tomorrow night?”

Galo’s eyes lit up, “Uh, yeah! Why do you ask?”

“Maybe you’d like to meet me for coffee? There’s a place I go to just a few blocks from here, and on Thursdays they have poetry night.” 

Galo just sort of sat there, staring blankly at Lio for a second. Did he just… ask him out on a date? It sure sounded like it, but again he wondered if this was just Lio’s way of being friendly.

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to.”

“No, I…” Galo reached up to ruffle his own hair, smiling. “I’ve just never been to anything like that before.” He didn’t really go out very often, except to the occasional bar to watch a soccer game. “Do they have food too?”

Lio chuckled a little, “Yeah, they have food. Sandwiches and stuff.”

“Sounds good, I’m in!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna write a little more at the end there but uh... I'm lazy and I'm not going for perfection with this stuff anyway. :B


End file.
